Was It Worth The Lives You Lost? (OLD VER)

The Zone And The Reality Of It All

It was mid day with light rain. Having been only 3 hours since they arrived before Matthew was waken up by being shook urgently by Samuel, "Get up, there's Corrupted outside." Samuel said with urgency.

Matthew sprung to his feet, grabbing his gun running over to a boarded up window behind Samuel. Marcus and Kendrick were across the room on the other window.

Five Corrupted ran out of the alley across the street, they climbed onto cars looking around hastily.

Making noises of painful groaning they hopped into buildings scouting.

Matthew looked over to Marcus, Marcus looked to Matthew and put his finger over his mouth signaling to be quiet before looking back out the window.

Each of the Corrupted were breaking into buildings and searching for anyone inside.

One Corrupted stumbled over to the front door of the building they were in.

It began banging on the barricaded door.

Matthew signaled to the others with his hands four words, "We stay, we die."

Another Corrupted began slamming itself into the barricaded door as well.

They began looking around with panic, Samuel snapped his finger pointing at the stairs leading to the roof.

Matthew went first, then Marcus, then Samuel, then Kendrick.

Finally giving in, the barricade fell apart. The two Corrupted rushed in quickly searching each floor.

Matthew looked to the next building and gestured to follow before leaping onto the other roof, in the same order, the group followed across the gap.

In reverse order, one at a time they climbed down the fire escape. Matthew dropped down grabbing the ladder peeking over the edge to the door they came from.

Two Corrupted broke the door off its top hinges looking around the roof, Matthew quickly climbed down and followed his group through the back alley ways heading in the direction the Corrupted came from.

Using cars for cover while crossing the street, they stayed on the move for what felt like 30 minutes.

Having made their way about a mile, they finally found a temporarily safe place to rest.

It was a old building having been used to ship packages, the roof in the middle had caved in.

They entered the front entrance locking the door behind them, Marcus sat down against a wall out of breath.

"Take a breather guys-" Said Matthew before hearing groaning from down one of the halls.

Everyone stopped moving and listened.

Pain filled groaning turned into whimpering.

"Sounds human." Marcus pointed out.

"This building was in the direction of the gunfire Samuel and I heard from the roof." Kendrick informed.

"Samuel, on me." Said Matthew nodding towards the direction of the noise.

Samuel followed Matthew close from behind, both guns ready. Clearing a few rooms they made it to the next hall.

Matthew signaled stop, he pointed down the hall at a body laying in blood next to the door where the cries were coming from.

They looked at each other before slowly making their way towards the body.

Arriving at the body, Matthew hung his rifle from his backpack grabbing his hatchet hanging from his right hip before checking the male corpse.

Samuel looked at the claw marks on the chest, the corpse was impaled many times in the torso, looking at the bullet holes trailing from the beginning of the hall.

"It's definitely the group we heard. Body's still fresh." Samuel whispered to Matthew while pointing his rifle toward the wet blood.

Matthew grabbed the 1911 from the hand of the corpse, he grabbed the one extra magazine from the pants right front pocket.

After reloading the pistol he stowed it in his back waist.

The weak cries continued.

Matthew stood against the wall beside the doorway, Samuel kept his rifle trained on the doorway to back up Matthew.

Matthew leaned over peeking around the corner into the large office room, the far wall had fallen along when the roof fell in. Rain trickled in from the large opening in the roof.

He saw four more bodies, two female, three male. One more female body was laying against but also obscured by the desk in a pool of blood weakly groaning in pain, "There's the source of the noise." Matthew whispered to Samuel.

Stepping over the previous body they slowly made their way in towards the woman.

Making their way through the bodies, they walked around the desk now facing the woman.

"Oh god." Matthew said with trembling in his voice, putting his hand over his mouth.

Samuel slowly lowered his gun looking at the woman.

The woman's jaw had been ripped off half way and was hanging by the flesh on the left side of her face. Her stomach was clawed at like the other bodies, she didn't move, staring off with tears running down her face in shock.

After a few moments Samuel gently set his rifle on the desk, crouching down beside the woman he pulled out his knife from his boot.

He shook his head before carefully putting the blade into the back of her head, putting her to rest.

Samuel wiped off his knife, after putting it back in his boot, he stood picking up his rifle.

Samuel cleared his throat, "Lets check the rest of the bodies."

"Yeah." Matthew said with slight trembling in his voice, he put the hatchet back on his hip before helping Samuel check the rest of the bodies.

They scavenged: A days worth of food and water, extra ammo for the pistol, and map. The other weapons were either damaged or out of ammo.

"We need to head back before Marcus and Kendrick come after us." Said Samuel stowing the found food in his backpack before putting it back on.

While thinking, Matthew looked back to the woman.

"I need to do something first." Said Matthew grabbing a torn cloth off the floor, covering the woman against the desk.

"Alright, lets go." Said Matthew dusting his hands off.

Walking back, they met back with Kendrick and Marcus in the other hall. Both stood meeting Matthew and Samuel in the middle of the hall.

"Was it human?" Kendrick asked.

"Unfortunately." Said Matthew quietly with some pain in his voice thinking about what they saw.

"What happened?" Marcus asked intrigued by Matthews response.

"A group of seven, four men, three women. They were jumped by Corrupted, but one woman, being the cause of the sound was mutilated. And was still alive." Samuel recalled uncomfortably.

"How were they all killed? Was there a re-occurring pattern?" Marcus asked pulling a small note pad and a pen from a pouch on his belt.

"Lots of clawing on the bodies, they were impaled repeatedly in the abdomen and chest." Stated Matthew while Marcus wrote down what he said.

"This doesn't tell us how to kill one of those freaks but good info nonetheless." Said Marcus putting the note pad back in his belt pouch.

"Great stuff. I'm tired of sitting around in a hall, so let's clear the warehouse out so we have a proper camp. Yeah?" Said Kendrick anxious to get moving.

"I was thinking the same thing, let's get it." Said Marcus in agreement.

Each of them pulled out their rifles and headed for the warehouses.

"Stay frosty." Said Samuel with focus.